When you are about to build your eCommerce store, choosing the right platform is the most important choice that you need to make. A platform is like the foundation of your store and will decide the functionality and design to the website.
A developer may come in handy in taking the right choice. As you have expertise in running the business, a developer will have experience of working with variety of platform. He will be responsible for the day to day functioning and maintenance of the store. You must also make a comparison between various eCommerce development platforms to find the best platform that will be suitable for your business.
Here we have made a comparison between the two of the most popular eCommerce development platforms, Magento and Shopify based on certain parameters:
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Popularity
In the realm of eCommerce both Magento and Shopify are extremely popular platforms. But there is a subtle difference between the kinds of websites that use these platforms. In general, small online stores, who cannot afford to hire Magento Developer, are using Shopify. This is because of the ease of use and attractive features that are available to the inexperienced online store owners. But in case of Magento, this platform is mostly preferred by medium and large-sized online stores. Though it does not undermine the fact that Magento can be used by small online stores also, who are ready for the effortless scalability in the future.
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Control and Customization
Magento and Shopify have different hosting and control options. Magento is a self-hosted platform. This means you will have full control over the servers and hosting that you will choose. On the other hand, Shopify is a hosted solution and does not require advanced level development expertise. This means that you do not need to configure and host the website. But there is a limitation that you will not be able to access the source code which will limit the options of store level customizations.
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User Friendliness
Shopify has a user-friendly platform. It allows users to easily modify most of the basic attributes of your store. Customization can be done with the help of easy-to-use tools and drag-and-drop interface. Magento is also flexible but has limited user-friendliness. That is why it is convenient for large store owners to use Magento. Also they may hire Magento developers for all the necessary customizations of the website.
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Speed & Performance
Speed and performance can go a long way in the success of every eCommerce store. Website loading time is a crucial factor that affects the traffic on the website. This is applicable to all the aspects of the online store, from browsing through the products to making a purchase.
As discussed previously, Shopify is a hosted solution and gives ample page loading speed. The overall performance of the eCommerce store is faster as compared to Magento based platforms. But all this speed is achieved at the cost of control. You will have limited control over your hosting environment and server level adjustments. On the other hand Magento based eCommerce stores are well known for its robust performance and unique performance oriented adjustments. As it is a self-hosted platform, you are provided with the options to choose your own server and make all the necessary adjustments required to boost the performance metrics.
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Payment Gateway Options
Payment gateway option is one of the most crucial modules of any eCommerce website. Shopify offers ease of payments with the help of various integrations that provide custom payment solutions and other popular payment options. Magento also has selling options similar to that of Shopify. The extent of capabilities that your eCommerce store needs as achieved with the help of modules. You can also find different modules and add-ons in order to configure and set up different payment options.